Arts & Culture app from Google raises privacy concerns

Perhaps you’ve seen the new meme comparing selfies to historic works of art.

(If not, you should view the best of this viral wave before we raise our concerns.) The source of the trend comes from a helpful app from Google to share and discover art. Until recently, Google’s Arts & Culture app enabled users to read stories about local arts and history, and navigate through daily curated collections. But only recently did the app explode into the mainstream.

A new feature added to the Arts & Culture app in mid-December 2017 takes an average selfie and generates a side-by-side comparison with a historic work of art. The app update (available only in the USA as of writing) has unleashed a frenzy online as users post images of their painting lookalikes to social media.

As tobe expected with a tool of this novelty, some ‘art doppelgangers’ are hilariously bad…

…while others have found greater accuracy.

Despite the hype, however, privacy advocates have quickly dubbed the app a facial recognition database.

I mean, this google app that matches your face to a piece of fine art. Anyone suspicious of just surrendering your facial recognition to google or are we confident they already have that at this point?
4:04 PM – 14 Jan 2018

The new feature is not a revolutionary one — facial recognition generators have been pairing doppelgangers and tagging celebrity lookalikes for over a decade — but Google’s involvement raises a genuine cause for concern. As you may already know, Google’s long history with facial data is a murky one. Their “ask forgiveness, not permission” business ethics have lead to many public scuffles; like the time people discovered their likeness was used in sponsored reviews, and the ongoing class-action lawsuit over collecting biometrics without user consent.

Knowing full-well that Google analyzes all of the data it can possibly acquire, the notion of Google building a facial recognition database isn’t a major leap to make. Google did communicate to MailOnline that the images uploaded to Google’s Arts & Culture app are deleted after a match is made with no additional uses. But a second look at their Privacy Policy leaves a valley of doubt.

To selfie, or not to selfie: that is the question.

Privacy concerns notwithstanding, some will suffer through the FOMO of not using the app. That’s no surprise, sometimes you just want to take part in the social media trend — no matter how frivolous or silly. So, is the risk worth it?

That depends entirely on your personal privacy concerns. Bear in mind that every time you provide personal data to a third party, you run the risk of that data ending up in someone else’s hands. With that said, if you already have your likeness attached to social profiles, you run little increased risk to your online identity.